Every week I get "NOTIFICATIONS" from B-coss, big deal....for about six years this has been going on..( Tell me I am a patient fellow) and every effort I make to acess this dammmed site results in zero'ssss....I admitt to being liturate to the point where I can find the keyboard on this Computer, what I need is someone, who is smarter than a Fifth grader, to explain to this ol (fall ride in the south) how to do it.....I find it hard to be a newbie at my advanced age....Ken

B-Cozz is on MSN (Microsoft Network) and MSN is a PITA. It won't co-operate with the browser to allow you to use the auto form complete feature to save log in info and it's a further pain to navigate. Instead of logging on to the site you have to log on to the flippin' network and navigate back to the site. Once you log on to the network you can access all of Yahoo groups and other features but if all you want is B-Cozz it's not worth the hassle. Like most Microsoft ideas it sucks.

I signed on with B-Cozz and it's such a PITA I just delete the update messages and don't go there anymore. The site navigation is in itself screwy with separate registrations for different parts of the same site. Don't feel alone in being frustrated with B-Cozz. It's a frustrating experience!

Ken,
I had a bit of a challange getting into the bCozz site myself. I'm no computer wizz! You have to sign up for the MSN Passport first. Then there are 4 different sections of bCozz to register to and it takes 24 hours to get approved for each. Well worth the effort once you get through it all!

Morry

Not the easiest site system to use - but the info on the site makes the pain of MSN worthwhile...

Dub

Life is too short to put up with every self styled group of experts, pain, as they see fit to distribute, it sounds better to say I am giving them the Heave-hoe, but you know what I am thinking....thanks for the help....Ken

I here ya Ken....I started the sign up process months ago....and THEN found out you had to go through multiple steps....sorry, ain't got the time, patience, nor 'puter savvy for all that...

Now I get a notice every time I fire up the 'uter about..yadayadayada...MSN....

They may have a lot of info, but they're probably inadvertantly turning away even more.

Just to add my 2 cents worth...
I'm pretty computer literate considering I make my living off building websites, creating 3D graphics and fixing the blasted things.
BCOZZ has to be the most frustrating site I have ever tried to access. It does truly suck because I know damn well there's a lot of good info there: but I can't be assed to jump through all the hoops to get to it either.
I hope someone there will read this and sort out a better arrangement, but I have a feeling that those who use it regularly are used to it already and probably don't care too much. A full site rebuild for them would be a huge endeavor.

Yeah, if you have a Ural 750cc, there is really no point in going there. If you have old stuff, it's certainly worth the royal PITA necessary to get info. I hate that there is no search feature of any kind there.

gspell,
You make it sound like if you own a new bike, that old posts are of no use.
It seems to work for some people as I see it referanced on other boards and lists.
Sometimes problems can be worked out by notifying a moderator or admin. Has anyone asked for a search option?
I think that all the boards for these machines are important and shouldnt be brushed off as 'no good because I dont have an older model bike'

jmho

I would ask this of anyone with the time and expertise, to go to B-coss, and lay it out to them, that they are self promoting to people who share the same intrests, have information to share, but are blocked out by the antiquated msn fluff, may take months...but going out on a limb, I think it would bond togather the russian Iron community world wide, I wish I had the knowledge to do it....so here somebody, is your chance of a life time.....Ken

I didn't mean to make it sound like the B-Cozz site is worthless. I use it a couple times a week, but I have two K-750's and an M-72. It's invaluable to me. However, if you go there with a new 750cc OHV question, you will be dissappointed. No one on the forum there has probably even seen a new Ural, much less ridden, owned, or worked on one so there are no old OHV 750cc posts to reference to.

You might find some applicable stuff that carries over like final drives, frames, forks, wheels, and tubs. However, there are better sites like Bill G.'s myural site with real current photos rather than crappy, fuzzy diagrams labelled in cyrillic.

There is no search feature. We've discussed it there before. In fact, they request everyone with questions search old posts and continue them rather than starting a new thread. Also, at one time they even limited the number of threads a member could begin!

I know if I had a new Ural, B-Cozz would just be a history lesson...

Same story here. I signed up a long time ago and keep geting updates... but the pain from the distant memory of lusing that site still prevents me from going forward with it. Is there 2 different B-Cozz sites? i get updates from B-Cozz and B-Cozz 2. .. I don't know.. it's just too strange... And sounds like i could really benefit from being there as I too have M72... I don't know, maybe I should revisit that crazy site...

Only two? Ah.... that would be no. There are four, each requiring registration to access. The site seems to have evolved with each new section added using the same board template as needed or desired.

I got the impression that the site was built by someone not quite versed in building a site quite some time back then expanded as more server space became available by adding on more modules instead of revamping the original site.

A problem with MSN is that in the interest of ease of use or some whacked out idea provided by an engineering group it tries to do way too much under one aegis. MSN also uses the registration to access Yahoo groups, send spam, do Yahoo mail and other functions. I dumped Yahoo instant messenger because MSN was using it to send me SPIM (instant messanger spam). It's just poorly thought out and implemented like some other forms of MS software. B-cozz could be better but since that would require considerable jiggery-pokery to rebuild it'll never happen.

There's some good stuff on B-cozz but it's so frustrating to deal with you have to decide whether or not you really need that information. If you could log in directly to that site without fighting your way through the MSN log in it'd be better.

WE are doomed to rethinking every thought about flat heads all over again---- ....Ken

I'm surprised Bill is still running that site. He sold his Dnepr last spring to make room for more bikes. He's a bit of a collector. He has a talent for finding low milage garage kept beuties to move to his garage. Real nice guy. Rode with us in the pinebarrens a couple of years ago. Showed us some nice trails. He's local down there. He even made us all members of the 'Woppa Choppers'. It's a made up motorcycle club to cover for a mob safe house,just kidding . I still have the hat and swetshirt. I hope he rides with us again. Last year he sent me gaskets for the needle valves that had rotted out on my K-68s made out of superior materials.

Come on boys! It isn`t that bad once you`re through the hoops! Just mark you`re 4 unwanted mails as read and ignore them. If you were cleverer than me you could probably get the email program to mark them as spam and ignore them. There is far too much useful information for us non-Ural 750 riders to ignore. An awfull lot of smart people too.

I started out on this forum as it was easy to find (I even have one of the patches) but nowadays Bcozz is my forum of choice for some good reasons:

1. It's truly international. I am often on messenger late at night with russian owners from eastern europe to Austrailia
2. If you ride an old bike then these guys are the experts and are amazingly helpful.
3. unbelievable information available in"the workshop"

Hand on heart. My bike wouldn't run if it wasn't for Bcozz and the people there.

I had no problems registering or getting access and it's configured to not to send me messages.

bcozz "the shadow site" - love it. thanks Ken. can we use that?

contrary to previous posts we do have new URal owners, lots of them.

just for everyone we've tweaked a setting to make things easier. have another look, hope you'll even join us at bcozz if you havent already.

link
http://groups.msn.com/Cossackpowerb-Cozz

as with all these forums you choose the options in the settings to decide whether to get daily or weekly emails, or to just read the boards online. it's too easy.

as Reini in Austria says "We are a great family from the Russian bikes"

grtz

I just cruised the site. There is a new login that is much easier to use and new pages have been added. It's much better now!

those "new pages" have been up for at least a year. Hope it helps someone.

I'm no computer whiz and I have no trouble getting to B-Cozz. I just double click on the link in My Favorites, and VOILA! I'm there. Scroll down two pages, click on "View all messages" and I can read all of the forum stuff. If I want to access some of their very extensive tech stuff, I just go to the side menu and pick it. I don't log into MSN or anything. Maybe I had to do that the first time, but once it was in my favorites, B-COZZ is just a double click away.

Mike Lydon

Is MSN your homepage by any chance? You use IE as your browser? YMMV.

With red rimmed eyes, strained blood vessels ratiating out from the pupils, hair mussed tattered, beard all scraggly, hunched and bent, over this computer board, heart barely beating, supported mainly by untold cups of coffee, and an ocasinal nip...................Carumba.....I have defeated the cruds who have designed the maze that excludes us old people, devoid of computer training....that have excluded us from B-COSS....So there, you heartless torturers, of the internet....I am free.....as soon as I get out of the physco ward....... ....Ken

Ken.
Glad to see you made it to the OTHER SIDE!! How about posting that photo here for all to enjoy! Was that a passport photo?

Indeed good to see Ken has made it ..over the threshold. especially after 5 years!

Is MSN your homepage by any chance? You use IE as your browser? YMMV.


MSN isn not my homepage. I use IE7.

Mike Lydon

I know not how I got there( that sound familiar ) but having arrieved, I found it warm and fuzzy... Ken

I have been a b-cozz member for quite a while and hav'nt had any trouble finding my way around the site, logging on or off easy peasy! have made aquaintances around the world thanks to b-cozz, a really great site with a huge knowledge base, just a shame about MSN, but that's what to expect about mickysoft! B-cozz is really quite easy to navigate, you do need to register for seperate sections of it, it may feel like a pain in the final drive but it's well worth it. The plusses are:- you read no spam, loadsa diagrams/pictures, someone has done it and written in about it, if you have some input it will be welcomed, you get to know people globaly and it promotes club membership every where. I'm not the only B-cozz member who frequents here, so you could say it promotes a global interest in motorcycling. So! do I shut up now?

Martin

No...Ken

I find the B-cozz site very enjoyable and there are always tidbits to be gleaned, thanks to those who helped out steering me thru the morass of electrons. When I got out of school, if one could type, you were office literiate, the younger generation, start pickin and pecken at an early age, my grand kids simply fly thru the video games, like life passing me by....Ken

Thats a good word that, Ken, morass. You've been reading that dictionary again! You go carefull! You'll get edumificated you will! Not good for a bikers image that aint! Ha ha ha! 's good to see someone with a grasp of language really Ken, I'm only having a laugh.
Martin

So! it's not joining Bcozz that's the problem! It's joining MSN. Assuming the use of a reasonably modern computer, with a recent version of windows and that everthing is firing on all cylinders. Accessing MSN's website www.msn.com? should be a sinch! Having got there, you find in one of the menues "my msn" and double click it. you will then be invited to "register" and get a passport I.D. thingy! Do this, jumping thro' all the hoops and over the hurdles, agreeing to everthing mickysoft wants. If you get thro' that, you'll get access to all of MSN's groups, including Bcozz. From there it's the same as this list, register and log on!
It's well worth the effort, there are loads of groups under MSN. Bcozz is a lttle `different' in that it has several `chapters' awkward, maybe, but it does enable a certain amount of `cutting to the chase!' if you get my drift? Hope that I've helped someone. If you still have difficulty, contact MSN, or a fellow AOL member on IM.
Hope to see you there.
VBR
Martin

I just joined up this week-it was a bit of a hassle,but i'm in. I haven't had anything to do with MSN since I went to broadband back in 2001. The site seems primarily geared to Europeans,and it IS interesting to see what they do with their bikes. It SURE makes me want to get one of those old flatheads,though.

Have to add this to the pile, I don't handle frustration really well, but B-cozz is like living a hard and long life, then going to heaven...once you get there it is worth the trip. That msn passport seemed to be the stumbling block and the root of my frustration, without a smart daughter on a computer, I might still be out there wallering about in the wilderness.....Ken

tell you what ken

you seem to be getting a load of unwarranted grief on bcozz at the mo

for an article you may or may not have read replied to some months ago

makes no sense

don`t stress it but don`t leave you`ve put some good stuff on there fella

I log into BCOZZ in Windoz, on a Mac and in Linux. Once you have gone through the full log in proceedure things go fine. MSN is a bit of a problem and it doesn't like big picture files. My biggest problem has been posting picture, something I still figured out YET.

The content I find more international. This site, amongst others tends to assume you are American, with all the bagage that comes with it.

ouch